shulman@topaz.RUTGERS.EDU (Jeff Shulman) (01/10/86)
Delphi Digest Friday, 10 Jan 1986 Volume 2 : Issue 2
Today's Topics:
RE: Where's the SCSI port going to be? (Re: Msg 4670)
T Flavors with ELISP
RE: APPLETALK CABLE (Re: Msg 4688)
RE: APPLETALK CABLE (Re: Msg 4720)
Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1
RE: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1 (Re: Msg 4795)
RE: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1 (Re: Msg 4834)
RE: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1 (Re: Msg 4834)
Mac databases
RE: Mac databases (Re: Msg 4806)
RE: Mac databases (Re: Msg 4806)
MS Works
Bad Disks
RE: Startup file vRefNum
General Computer unannouncements
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From: BMUG (4704)
Subject: RE: Where's the SCSI port going to be? (Re: Msg 4670)
Date: 3-JAN-03:00: Hardware & Peripherals
They give you a new case that has a new hole in the back...
BMUG--SMC
------------------------------
From: BMUG (4706)
Subject: T Flavors with ELISP
Date: 3-JAN-03:09: Programming
I recently sent a letter around the net asking for info on a dialect
of LISP called T. And this is the reponse that I got..I thinks it's
great. In a few months I plan to uplaod a program that Freud would
have loved to talk to!!!!!!!!
KA long time ago... I wrote a Flavors package for T (Yale dialect of
Scheme) which has been in use here at UCLA for the past few years.
Finally having some time to play with ExperLisp 1.04, I decided to try
a port and have achieved some success.
There were some minor constraints imposed by T on the original implementation
(some of which I consider features, of course) but for the most part it is a
reasonable subset of the tangled mess that constitutes the Zetalisp flavor
system.
My implementation provides: define-flavor, define-method,
undefine-method, send, make-instance, describe-flavor, vanilla,
(vanilla describe), (vanilla apropos), (vanilla get-handler-for), and
others.
It does not provide support for whoppers, wrappers, or other obscenities that
render code even more obscure. The T implementation does not allow instance
variables to be used freely in method bodies, rather they must be preceded by a
readmacro (&). Since EL doesn't provide readmacros yet, this must be finessed
which I'm working on now. I happen to like the idea of flagging instance
variables because it makes it easier to read someone else's code.
Anyway, the EL version is almost ready for beta-test (I'm specifically
interested in better error-handling because EL is particularly
unforgiving in this respect). If you are interested in obtaining a
copy, send me a message and when I feel the code is sufficiently
stable I will mail out the source code.
What I am asking in return is that people respect the copyright notice (i.e. do
not try to sell this code as part of another system without including the
copyright notice and notifying me). I would also ask people to send me any bug
reports, suggestions, and enhancements.
One final note, this implementation is primarily commonlisp so I expect that it
should either run directly in CL or require only minor modifications. I will
check this out when I get a chance.
Enjoy,
Seth Goldman
ARPA: seth@LOCUS.UCLA.EDU
UUCP:...!{ihnp4,cepu,trwspp,sdcrdcf,ucbvax}!ucla- cs!seth
By the way..ELISP is now 1.05 for all you ELISP people
BMUG--SMC
------------------------------
From: BMUG (4720)
Subject: RE: APPLETALK CABLE (Re: Msg 4688)
Date: 3-JAN-19:56: Programming
According to the Fall, 1985 BMUG Newsletter, page 26, the Mac-Mac
Cable (DB9 null-modem) that comes with the MDS can be used as a 2-Mac
AppleTalk cable. The Mac's won't be isolated, but usually that isn't
a problem with just 2. If you want to hook up more machines, I'd
recommend BMUGNET. It costs only $15/node and uses normal modular
telephone wire to interconnect, and works over longer distances than
AppleTalk.
-- Raines Cohen
Associate Editor, Fall Newsletter
Berkeley Macintosh Users Group
------------------------------
From: RABBIT (4737)
Subject: RE: APPLETALK CABLE (Re: Msg 4720)
Date: 4-JAN-00:09: Programming
Rains,
The MDS cable didn't seem to work (although, I am embarassed to say, that I
didn't find out the probable cause until much later as you will see).
So, I built a straight 9pin to 9pin connector. That didn't work either. I
finally broke down and purchased 2 appletalk conectors (at a very very hefty
price), since I was anxious to use my hardisk. It still didn't work... Then I
found out the cause! I didn't activate AppleTalk (he,he)... At least the
appletalk cables look nice (now that I have to work for the next 20 years to
pay them off)...
Scott
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH (4795)
Subject: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1
Date: 4-JAN-23:38: Macintosh In Fact
The "MacInTouch" Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1
We've just gotten some details on the Macintosh Plus, to be announced in a week
or two:
physical:
The case is - BEIGE! (like today's Mac)
It looks just like a Mac, except for "Macintosh Plus" in gray lettering, and a
slightly different logo location (on the front).
The back looks the same except for the ports: a DB25 connector for SCSI, the
standard floppy disk/HD20 port, and two 8-pin serial ports that you can picture
by imagining an AppleTalk connector with 8 pins instead of 4. Naturally, this
makes the serial ports incompatible with _everything_.
keyboard:
A whole numeric keypad is added to the keyboard on the right - altered
from the current layout. The right hand Option key has been removed,
with cursor keys where it used to be and there are a few other minor
rearrangements guaranteed to frustrate terminal-program developers.
The bad news is the keyboard has the same poor tactile response and
high profile.
performance:
Performance with some graphic-intensive applications is markedly better.
Scrolling in MacWrite doesn't appear to have improved substantially, nor has
scrolling of bitmaps. Copying floppies is faster thanks to the 1M-byte and the
nice double-sided drive.
HD20
The big advantage seems to be the integration of the Mac with the
HD20. Although the SCSI port isn't currently used for the HD20, at
least the Mac boots from it nicely without any floppy disk required.
Overall performance with the Mac Plus and HD20 combination seems to be
good, although we haven't heard how it does with great numbers of
files crammed into folders.
stay tuned:
We will get our standard MacInTouch benchmarks run on the Mac Plus as soon as
possible. We're just completing them on a standard Mac/HD20 for comparison.
Also, we intend to find out what lies inside the Mac Plus, especially how the
RAM is mounted and whether there's HyperDrive room.
------------------------------
From: FRACTAL (4834)
Subject: RE: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1 (Re: Msg 4795)
Date: 5-JAN-13:52: Macintosh In Fact
I have heard further rumor regards the serial ports that Apple in its quest for
true incompatibility of the new serial ports has removed the +5 volt pin
completely from the new 8 pin (IW II - like) connector. This, of course,
presents much more serious problems for those that use it than a simple
connector change. If this is true Apple has screwed us again...
Tom Hedges
------------------------------
From: RICFORD (4835)
Subject: RE: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1 (Re: Msg 4834)
Date: 5-JAN-15:19: Macintosh In Fact
This is the only possible reason I can think of that Apple would make such a
change. It looks like a tremendous headache for us all, especially those of us
with MIDI boxes. A great "market opportunity" for kludge manufacturers. Maybe
Kette will bail us out as much as anyone can - Mike, are you listening?
The 512K Mac with third party upgrade is starting to look better and
better. Too bad Apple isn't making them anymore. "Get your
collector's Mac while they last!"
Tom, what do you think about the Human Touch 12MHz CPU advertised in the latest
Mac World, and its potential compatibility problems with sound applications?!
Ric Ford MacInTouch newsletter
------------------------------
From: PEABO (4837)
Subject: RE: Mac Plus Report - Chapter 1 (Re: Msg 4834)
Date: 5-JAN-15:46: Macintosh In Fact
I have heard that too, but I regard it as an improvement. There was
apparently no current limiting from the +5, and it was therefore
possible to damage the Mac by short-circuiting it. Some people also
were unaware of the guideline for maximum power drain from all the
connectors, and designed equipment that could have resulted in
overstressing the power supply without shorting it out.
peter
------------------------------
From: YDOCXX (4806)
Subject: Mac databases
Date: 5-JAN-02:09: Bugs & Features
I have used Helix 2.0 for sometimes and found it to be very easy to
use, but alot of things has to be sacrifice to make it good ! 1> speed
is very unacceptable when it becomes very big ! what I mean by that
is when you create, since Helix uses Icons, it becomes too slow when
you reach over 1500 icons, I have created and reach the limit of helix
(2500 icons total) and can not continue my program because of the
limitation ( I have invested over 100 hours in that) It has crashed 5
times and no way you can use the file again ! I disable the autosave
feature because it will took too long to save what ever you did (in
the programmimg) and I experienced several times over 30 minutes from
quit to the finder ! If you want to do some database application on
helix make sure you do alot of back up once in a while ! because once
you crash ! there is no way back ! Once I opened my Helix document and
some right after the menu comes up a friend of mine accidentally reset
the Mac, I have't even do any modification at all, but the next time I
use the file it gave me a message that the file might be bad ( it's
still good etc.. ) but every time you open that file that message will
still be there ! 2> There is no automatic procedure to do stuff like
deleting etc... If you keep adding stuff to it it will grow
tremendously Big off course let's say you have 5 years worth of data
and you want to delete the first 3 years, Imagine that you have to
delete the record 1 by 1 !(good luck) and also you can not create a
turn key systen because of the lack of programming language or sort of
! 3> the Icon is great idea , It is easier to understand etc.. but try
get a lin I mean Listing of your 200K+ file ! I think Helix should
come up with an ICONless version for people who want's speed ! etc..
4> continuing on <2> also for the same reason you can not have an automatic
updating ! supposingly you have an inventory Listing of 5000 different items
and you are about to change all the product with a price increase of 5%
and you have to sit there and type in the new values to all 5000 of them !
I finally gave up on Helix after trying to print some pretty big
files! It took to long ! off course spooling will help with the
hyperdrive but it was just too much waiting time !
So I tried Omnis 3 (taa daa !) after studying the program for about
10 days I did the same program on omnis 3, with some BIG differences !
Speed ( awesomely fast ! ) Totally turnkey system with pull down menus
and buttons ! Very good error handling ! in the programming stages it
will not allow you to make a typos error ! all the command that you
can do in Omnis ( Sequences) are in radio buttons mode ! All you have
to do is go through some the example that they provide ! and you can
prcatically do your own stuff with a little bit of experimenting.
Although it doesn't have as many function as Helix does (like TAN, SIN
etc..) but I think it's save enough to say that all the function in
there will be adequately enough for most general purposes ! I would
like to see if they will add more built in functions a couple of
features added to Omnis 3 will make this program much better such as >
desriptive variable name rather than #nn (omnis 3 uses #nn as a
variable, where nn = 1..60, #S,#R,#P, etc..) One bug I found in using
the Onis3 with Hyperdrive 20 (not hyperdrive10) when you choose screen
as the output rather than file or printer it will crash ! with system
error ID=15 , I don't know whose fault that is ! I will try to contact
both manufacturer !
Over all I give Omnis 3 a SOLID 9 I recommend this program for you people in
search for a good database for the Mac with a programming language !
Thank you ,
Jundi Karjadi any suggestion, comments ?
------------------------------
From: PEABO (4820)
Subject: RE: Mac databases (Re: Msg 4806)
Date: 5-JAN-04:13: Bugs & Features
Thanks for your report of a real application ... it certainly goes to show how
difficult it is to recommend a single database as being the best, without a
thorough understanding of what kind of problem you are trying to solve!
Concerning the functions available ... I have been puzzled for a long
while as to why exotic functions like TAN and SIN are offered by
spreadsheets ... (or database programs!) ... it seems to me that there
are very few applications that can use them, and the only reason for
including those functions is that they are a common component of many
floating point math functions.
peter
------------------------------
From: NANOCHIP (4860)
Subject: RE: Mac databases (Re: Msg 4806)
Date: 6-JAN-02:46: Bugs & Features
I understand that Odesta is soon to release "Double Helix", which will
address the problem of builing a turnkey database (plus other improvements?)
using the Helix enviornment. Has anyone seen or heard anything on this?
<Chip
------------------------------
From: MACINTOUCH (4869)
Subject: MS Works
Date: 6-JAN-18:38: Business Mac
Has anyone heard anything about Microsoft Works, Microsoft's answer for
AppleWorks for the Mac?
Maybe at the Expo...
josh
------------------------------
From: JOHNCRANE (4876)
Subject: Bad Disks
Date: 6-JAN-21:51: Hardware & Peripherals
In a Jan. 3 message on UseNet, Gordon Hamachi related that a large
number of his floppy disks have bad blocks and implied that it is a
cronic problem of all Macs.
In nearly two years of extensive use of the Mac I've had very few disk crashes,
and none that I couldn't relate to a reason that wasn't the fault of the Mac.
I wonder whose experience is more typical, Gorden's or mine?
- John
ps. After two years I'm beginning to think about getting a head cleaner.
------------------------------
From: ASMCOR (4886)
Subject: RE: Startup file vRefNum
Date: 6-JAN-23:17: Mousing Around
There is another way to find the startup file's vrefnum. The field
defined as iodirindex in the paramblockrec is the number of the file
in the order it was opened. i.e. the startup file has a iodirindex of
1. Simple enough to do a getinfo call based on that to find the
startup file. If you call PBGetInfo with the IoFDirIndex set to 0, it
returns the info on the file in ioNamePtr. On the other hand, if
IoFDirIndex is 1, you get back info on the startup file.
Jan
------------------------------
From: RICFORD (4924)
Subject: General Computer unannouncements
Date: 8-JAN-00:55: Hardware & Peripherals
General Computer's Unannounced Products 1/7/86
We found out today about 2 major new products to be announced by General
Computer at the Apple World Conference in a week:
HyperNet This is an advanced disk server software application. It
allows up to 25 or 32 Macintoshes to share a number of HyperDrives on
AppleTalk. Unlike competitive products such as XL/Serve and OmniTalk,
HyperNet updates the file/directory information on the server Mac in
real time when a client Mac makes a change. Drawers are mounted
remotely and the whole thing appears as one integrated network of disk
servers.
The new software is implemented via a new HyperNet Install
application, similar to the current HyperInstall, and a desk accessory
that lets client Macs open drawers on host HyperDrives. It will run
on existing HyperDrives as well as the Hyper2000 described below.
Blyth's Omnis 3 multi-user database runs well on the HyperNet.
HyperDrive 2000 An amazing new product from GCC does what we wish Apple could
do. It's called the HyperDrive 2000 and has the following:
an additional 1.5 MByte of RAM
a new 68000 running at 12MHz instead of 8 MHz, with no wait states
68881 floating-point coprocessor The Macintosh case is not modified --
externally, nothing looks different, but the overall speed increase is
astounding, much better than what the upcoming Macintosh Plus offers.
The HyperDrive 2000 will be available as an upgrade to any of the
current HyperDrive products, and should be compatible with the new
Macintosh Plus as well. The 68000 speed-up doubles the speed of the
Mac, because RAM is no longer hampered by "wait states." The 68881
coprocessor increases the speed of all SANE mathematics by trapping
the calls. In addition, Consulair will have compiler support for the
coprocessor that will provide 20-250x speed-up of some operations,
especially graphics.
Prices: The pricing has not been set, but we can expect about $6000 for the Mac
with a HyperDrive 20 Mbyte disk and the hot-rodding.
"MacInTouch" newsletter Ford-LePage, Inc. PO Box 786 Framingham, MA 01701 617-
527-5808 Delphi: MACINTOUCH CompuServe: [75056,1225]
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End of Delphi Digest
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